After turning Starbucks Corp. into the world’s largest coffee chain, Chief Executive Officer Howard Schultz will hand the reins to a lieutenant who could solidify its role as a technology company.
Kevin Johnson, a 33-year veteran of the tech industry who became Starbucks’ chief operating officer last year, will take the helm from Schultz on April 3. The move is a nod to the company’s growing reputation for innovation: It introduced the world’s first successful mobile-payment service, beating out the likes of Apple Inc. and Google Inc., and gets an increasingly large portion of its revenue from that source.
